We are in the middle of summer, when the temperature rises people turn to drinking more liquids or refreshing themselves. Often the liquids include pop and 2 companies dominate the cola markets Coca-Cola and Pepsi. People enjoy the beverages and in a book by John Scully about his time at Pepis the big 2 liter bottles were brought in as something different than the glass bottles of Coke. Consumers loved the bottles and for z time, Pepsi outsold Coke

In an article from Reuters, Pepsi recently posted its 2nd quarter net revenue rising by 5.2% to $ 20.23 billion, beating the expected $19.51 billion.

Outside of having to write down $1.4 billion due to the Russia Ukraine war, Pepsi expects its core revenues to rise 10%.

Hugh Johnston, chief financial officer at PepsiCo said there has been no slowdown in demand even though price hikes were implemented.

Linking to dividend paying stocks, one aspect you should be looking for is the ability to maintain margins as prices rise. If the company can do that, as an investor you like it. Every company should know when the price is too high or consumers seek alternatives, but if consumers keep demand high as prices rise that is good.

There are more questions than answers, till the next time – to raising questions.

Most of us know Amazon and if you are interested in owning the stock, think AWS or cloud storage. In an interview with Jim Cramer the President of AWS says only 10% of the data is on the cloud, AWS has 30% market share and within 5 years it could easily be the most profitable division of Amazon. The division already worth $74 billion.

Most people know Amazon for its delivery service, it works. If you are a regular user, paying for Prime which includes free shipping is worth it. Prime is a cash cow for Amazon and over the years the service has risen from $99 to 119 and now is $139.

In an article by Haleluya Hadero of the Associated Press, research firm suggests sakes on Prime Day could be worth $7.76 billion. This would be 16.8% higher than last year because the day is mid July rather than mid June. The possibility of more back to school shopping is captured.

During the pandemic, Amazon was one of the fastest growing companies as it dominated warehouse expansion and increased its workforce to 1.6 million people with over $10 billion in costs. For the money, Amazon had leased or owned 387.1 million sq ft for its warehouses and data centers. This number is double from 2019.

Amazon has a problem, the consumer is spending less on line which means Amazon has too much space and too many people. According to Brian Olsavsky, the company’s chief financial officer, Amazon is in the consolidation phase rather than growth. Amazon has space which means it is changing rules for merchants which include giving them the same benefits of Prime subscription.

Linking to dividend paying stocks, all these companies has assets that can be used more efficiently, most of the time they do not have to. When changes come in the marketplace they can adapt and have the resources to adapt, which is why you want to own them.

There are more questions than answers, till the next time – to raising questions.

Companies buy and sell other companies on a regular basis and there are law firms and divisions of every securities company called mergers and acquisitions. Given the number that are done, they fall into normal patterns and one of the normal aspects is what happens if the deal falls apart? Similar to many aspects at The Board level, money is very important or companies agree if the deal does not go through a dollar amount is paid. When the deal is expected the companies tend to agree on a higher figure to show they are serious. If the deal does not go through, legal talent exchange views in court how the number should be lower.

Elon Musk wants to but Twitter, as one of the wealthiest people on the planet, he can. Elon Musk has demonstrated he was one of the more interesting people, but he seems to believe the rules do not apply to him. The Board of Twitter wants the $ 1 billion, Elon said he would pay if the deal did not go through. Elon says Twitter has more problems than I thought it had. We will see what happens in court.

The Board is also exploring making Elon go through with the purchase and then Elon would appoint whom he wishes to the Board, likely the Board will ensure they receive appropriate compensation packages.

Linking to dividend paying stocks, most of the time these companies will be doing the mergers to enhance a division to ensure changes in the marketplace help them; to buy new talent; or reasons that benefit the company. If there is a fight similar to Twitter, it is time to find alternatives because the Board will be focused on the fight for the next 2 quarters.

There are more questions than answers, till the next time – to raising questions.

If you have given blood, the lab techican takes a vial and then sends it to a lab for testing. The process has not been changed in decades, then Theranos said to test blood would be not much different than a pin prick. The procedure would revolutionize the industry and few would have concerns in giving blood. The company said the reason was technology and the stock price went up. Big pharma was interested, Theranos was the hot stock, but there was a problem, it did not work.

In an article by Michael Liedtke of the Associated Press, the former CEO and founder of Theranos, Ramesh Balwani was found guilty of fraud. The jury found guilty of all accounts.

The jury said the strategy of fake it till you make it, has a set time period to show results.

Linking to dividend paying stocks, in these companies process is important. Logistics to ensure the company continues to make a profit every year can be easily verified. There are many experts in many fields that work with profitable companies, part of your investing is depending on the experts. What is the margins and how are profits made?

There are more questions than answers, till the next time – to raising questions.

A standard piece of office furniture before 2000 was an ashtray. All the companies which make cubicles added ashtrays as smoking was permitted in the workplace. Over the past 20 years plus, things have changed or cigarette companies increasingly depended on markets outside the US. Technology improves many things and along came vaping. This was seen to be a better alternative than smoking and vaping companies increased in value. Among the bigger companies Altria bought Juul and all was good for the cigarette company.

Cigarette companies are in a highly regulated market and the FDA or US Food and Drug Administration is the lead agency. A few weeks ago, the FDA stopped the sale of Juul’s vaping machines.

According to the Associted Press, Altria through Juul’s lawyers went to court to unfreeze the FDA, and present new information. The U S Federal Appeals court agreed with Altria and Juul’s sales continued. Juul’s chief regulatory officer, Joe Murilli, said we now look forward to re-engaging with the FDA on a science- and evidence-based process to pursue a marketing authorization for Juul’s products.

Linking to dividend paying stocks, there are many companies which are profitable, some of them cause social harm. As an investor, as long as the product is legal you might invest in it. There are many industries which you can invest in or same away from, as an individual you have your choice. Sometimes when examining the high margins you may choose legal or not.

There are more questions than answers, till the next time – to raising questions.

In every city, large companies emerge and they seem to dominate the landscape and their names become well known. The general public will see the companies marketing effort and believe it is a stable company. Sometimes but not always, the company was built on relatively inexpensive money and seemingly with government support, either directly or indirectly. We are are all aware the economy moves in cycles and when a downturn moves through the national economy, the debt or inexpensive money needs to be paid back, the public finds the large company has to shrink it size.

In an article by Xie Yu and Claire Jim of Reuters, the biggest property developer in China has been China Evergrande Group has over $21 billion of offshore debt which needs to be restructured. Evergrande has over $300 billion in liabilities.To have that amount of debt, for a long time the government of China was a willing partner.

with the slowdown in China, all of Evergrande’s assets are being fought over including selling of its Hong Kong’s headquarters building for $1.7 billion.

When companies are in debt, legal firms are well represented to go through all the contracts.

Linking to dividend paying companies, one of the reasons to invest in these companies is they have made profits through a number of economic cycles. People will say, this time it is different and they are partially correct, something is a little different. However when it comes to too much debt, it is never different. Either the company has money to pay its debts or the company will shrink.

There are more questions than answers, till the next time – to raising questions.

Every company on the planet says its people make the difference and whatever company you work for that is true. Each of us believes we make a difference at work in some way or another, else why we be there? Every company in the private sector and in the quasi public sector follows the same rules profits equals more revenues than expenses. If the company does not make a profit, depending on the size it is s hobby or needs to be subsidized by someone or government. In some industries, the government encourages or sets expectations of management to operate in a quasi public manner because it is good for the government, one of these industries is the airlines. All countries want an airline due the benefits it can and does bring in economic development, all functioning airports have economic development around them including people and freight logistics.

In an article by Anna Ringstrom and Essi Lehto of Reuters, the large Swedish airline or SAS is having potential financial problems. Similar to employees around the world, the pilots want more money in global inflation. Planes can not fly without pilots and they have a strong bargaining position.

On the other side is management, the employees and management are not working together. SAS chuef executive officer Anko van der Werff says a strike by the pilots would be devastating for the company and all the colleagues. Management wants to reduce costs, a Sydbank analyst Jacob Pedersen says a strike will cost SAS $12.4 million a day. On top of that the company has high debt, too high costs relative to the other airlines, and there is a pent up demand to travel outside the country.

SAS is owned by the governments of Sweden and Denmark. The government of Norway did own piece of the company but sold in 2018, however it does own bonds or debt. The country has said it could convert debt to equity which would help the long term debt problem.

The strike went on for 15 days which SAS said cost the company $145 million with a lost of 3,700 flights. The deal entails lower wages, longer hours for pilots and commitment by SAS to rehire laid off pilots.

Linking to dividend paying stocks, all companies depend on quasi public companies and have an interest in the companies surviving, how much of their tax dollars to help is a different issue. Whether the company is public or quasi public, the issue of making profits never goes away. It is easier to invest in profit making companies first and monitor if they make profits you can keep them or find alternatives.

There are more questions than answers, till the next time – to raising questions.

One of the first rules about investing is try not to lose money. There are numerous methods to lose money, which is why if something is hot and you have to invest this minute or you lose out, 99% of the time you should wait. The other 1%, some will actually make money, but most of the time you will or should learn from your mistakes. Saying no is a good thing for investors to learn.

One of the hot investments was a special purpose acquisition company or SPAC. A pool of capital was raised and investors expected the managers to search out and find companies to buy and grow larger. The rules and regulations were loose, the vehicles were hot and some offerings went up in price, till the market changed and most or 99% are trading under the offering price.

In an article by Mathew Goldstein of the New York Times News Service, one of the companies which raised money was Digital World Acquisition Corp and it merged with Trump Media and Technology Group in October.

The Securities and Exchange Commission, because former President Trump is the Trump and the high profile of the company is examining the surge in trading of Digital World warrants before the merger announcement. Companies have to allow shareholders similar information before insiders can trade. When volumes increase, the expectation is people traded on inside information. The issue is why did investors make the decision to buy?

Former President Trump posts on Trump Media’s Truth Social.

Linking to dividend paying stocks, these companies tend to be profitable over the long term, given the capital gain and dividend to make up the total return. We all want to get rich overnight, however often times the riches disappear as quickly as they came in. The proven method is over a long time and using the power of compound interest, you will be rewarded and keep your money.

There are more questions than answers, till the next time – to raising questions.